Cancer silences musician, doctor Patt

Updated 8:08 am, Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Photo: Johnny Hanson

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Dr. Richard Patt getting ready to lead his band, Dr. Rick's Fool's Paradise, during a regular gig at a wine bar in Sugar Land. Over a stellar, 40-year career as a renowned doctor he treated thousands of people for pain, helping them manage it with powerful narcotics, allowing them to approach their deaths with a zest for life, not in the grip of frightening and debilitating pain.

Dr. Richard Patt getting ready to lead his band, Dr. Rick's Fool's Paradise, during a regular gig at a wine bar in Sugar Land. Over a stellar, 40-year career as a renowned doctor he treated thousands of people

"I love this man," renowned blues drummer Jackie Gray said as he hugged Dr. Richard Patt into his shoulder outside The Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club where Patt was going to perform with a pickup band Friday, Aug. 10, 2012, in Houston.

"I love this man," renowned blues drummer Jackie Gray said as he hugged Dr. Richard Patt into his shoulder outside The Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club where Patt was going to perform with a pickup band

"I'm trying something new," Dr. Richard Patt said about his beard that he dyed florescent yellow, as he walked to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at a local church Friday, Aug. 10, 2012, in Houston.

"I'm trying something new," Dr. Richard Patt said about his beard that he dyed florescent yellow, as he walked to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at a local church Friday, Aug. 10, 2012, in Houston.

Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle

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While helping patients manage their pain, Patt became hooked on the same drugs he game his patients.

While helping patients manage their pain, Patt became hooked on the same drugs he game his patients.

Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle

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"That was a better kiss than at our wedding," Pauline Patt said as her husband, Dr. Richard Patt, kissed her before leaving for a night out of performing music Friday, Aug. 10, 2012, in Houston.

"That was a better kiss than at our wedding," Pauline Patt said as her husband, Dr. Richard Patt, kissed her before leaving for a night out of performing music Friday, Aug. 10, 2012, in Houston.

Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle

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Books in the home office of Dr. Richard Patt speak to the amount of research that went into Patt's ability to help those suffering from cancer manage their pain.

Books in the home office of Dr. Richard Patt speak to the amount of research that went into Patt's ability to help those suffering from cancer manage their pain.

Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle

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Dr. Richard Patt puts on his final performance Wednesday at the Big Easy, playing guitar and singing with friends as he did nearly every night at local bars.

Dr. Richard Patt puts on his final performance Wednesday at the Big Easy, playing guitar and singing with friends as he did nearly every night at local bars.

Photo: Johnny Hanson, Staff

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Portrait of Dr. Richard Patt in his music room at his near-north Houston home where he his obsession for magician posters is prominent, however, Patt is not looking for a great escape, he knows his end is near and his happily living out his days with stage-four lung cancer Friday, Aug. 10, 2012, in Houston. Over a stellar, 40-year career as a renowned doctor he treated thousands of people for pain, helping them manage it with powerful narcotics, allowing them to approach their deaths with a zest for life, not in the grip of frightening and debilitating pain. Today, Patt is faced with managing his own pain as he faces eminent death from stage-four metastatic lung cancer "I don't want to be a dog in a closet licking its wounds," Patt said. "I'm in extreme ecstasy and having the best time of my life." "Since I've been sick, I have the same minutes in a day I've always had," Patt said. "I just look at them differently."

Portrait of Dr. Richard Patt in his music room at his near-north Houston home where he his obsession for magician posters is prominent, however, Patt is not looking for a great escape, he knows his end is near

When Richard Patt was diagnosed with end-stage lung cancer in March last year, he made a conscious decision not to fight it. He knew the odds. He was a doctor, an anesthesiologist by training, and a pioneer in the treatment of pain in terminal cancer patients. He had witnessed first-hand the value of death with dignity.

Instead of trying to buy a little more time with debilitating chemotherapy and radiation, his preferred therapy would be to play music until he couldn't any more.

Last Wednesday night, weak and slipping in and out of coherence, he took the stage at the Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club and nailed a short set; on Sunday, he died peacefully at home with his wife, Pauline, at his side. He was 58.

Patt, who served two terms as a board member for the Houston Blues Society and was the front-man for Dr. Rick's Fool's Paradise, ended his life playing music in Houston. But he began it in Baltimore growing up as the youngest of three boys in the Pill Hill neighborhood of the city.

In a series of interviews with the Houston Chronicle, Patt said his decision to make pain management his specialty was born of the realization that despite the fact that the tools were available to treat the debilitating pain of terminal cancer, doctors were wary of prescribing them, concerned their patients would become addicted, but also fearful that overprescribing the drugs could land them in trouble with regulators.

Patt resigned from M.D. Anderson in 1998. He established the Patt Center for Pain Management out of his house near the Texas Medical Center where he treated patients with a holistic program until 2006 when, battling drug dependency, his medical license was suspended by the Texas Medical Board and he checked into a rehabilitation center in Atlanta.

He had lost everything, but began rebuilding his life, first as a barista with Starbucks and later, after the medical board allowed him limited privileges, as a family practitioner at the Doctors Clinic of Houston in a strip mall in northwest Houston. In March last year, he was diagnosed with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer that had metastasized and spread to his adrenal gland.

Overcame obstacles

Patt was remembered Monday as a caring, compassionate physician, a musician with a unique, interpretive ear and a man who lived and died on his own terms.

"No matter what was thrown at him, he worked to overcome it," said C. Stratton Hill, a professor emeritus at M.D. Anderson, who was part of the team who recruited Patt and is considered the "grandfather" of pain medicine in Texas. "Like the problem with the drugs. He worked hard to come back and he succeeded. He worked at Starbucks and he got his license back. Whatever it took, that's what he did."

Kept a hectic schedule

Eric "Sax Dawg" Demmer, a respected member of the local music scene who played saxophone with Fool's Paradise, said at first playing with Patt was mostly work, a job to pay the bills.

"The more I played, the more I started to like it because he was so unconventional that it made me get on my toes and really pay attention because he would go where I didn't think he was going to go musically," Demmer said. "That was a challenge that I liked."

In his final days, Patt and his band maintained a hectic schedule of dates in clubs and restaurants throughout the Houston area.

But he knew his time was short, and on Wednesday he made the effort to get on stage at the Big Easy and sing a final song.